Worst mistake you have made at work?

[PaddyDomino]

I sometimes used to help out in a firm of solicitors, who were family friends, just doing clerical work and gofering.
One day I had to walk to another solicitor's office to collect a cheque for a deposit for a house purchase, and bring it back to our office.
It was a really windy day and I was crossing a bridge, returning with the cheque.
Like a complete eejit, I decided to stop on this windy bridge and open the envelope to double check all the paperwork.
The wind nearly blew the cheque away, and into the river, as I was taking it out of the envelope but I managed to grab it and I got such a fright, I'll never forget it!
How could I have faced going back to the office, after losing a cheque for thirty grand during a five minute walk!
And having to tell the clients that the deposit for their house had blown into a river

 

[LittleMy]

Accepting the job.

 

[WilmaHun]

When I worked for a large UK holiday firm I typed the wrong amount onto Sagepay and almost charged a customer £5,000 instead of £500. Luckily I had a "buddy" who I was training sat next to me who pointed out the error before I took the final card details (after that he probably wondered why they had me training him )

 

[Red hair dont care]

Accepting the job.

Yep agree. 1 job I lasted 4 days and quit. Definitely do not regret that one

 

[emm]

Accepting the job.

I have done a couple of jobs where I have thought this. one job I started was in a small office (but had been open for decades) and whn I satrted they were hiring a whole new staff, apart from the boss there was not a single employee, after accepting the job I learned that this had happened time and time again. Lesson learned, if somewhere has such a high turnover there is a reason!

 

[Candycrush]

A few but nothing too bad.

When I worked in a supermarket on the cigarette kiosk this guy deliberately swindled me. I forget exactly how it happened, but he had some cigarettes and gave me cash for them, then as I was counting out his change (i.e. for the amount the till told me), he acted like he'd changed his mind about the denomination of note he wanted to give me. I got really confused, which was the point, and I somehow ended up giving him money. When the cash office asked me what happened, it turned out the same guy had done it several times before and I had to give a description of him. It was only around £10 - £15 as well. Saddo.

This trick was shown on The Real Hustle once. To be honest I watched it a couple of times and still didn't understand how the trick was done so I'd be screwed working on a till.

 

[If you say so...]

Employing someone who said in their interview that they had left their previous job because of a "bulling manager" then went on to read verbatim our website when we asked them what they knew about our company. I had a bad feeling from the off but those higher thought they were best of the bad bunch.

They are, without question the worst person I've ever worked with, or had work in the team. They find a problem with every solution and mistakes are never their own, they are because "someone else" told them to. They never offer to help their team mates, but expect people to drop their tasks and work over for them. It's draining.

 

[Libitina]

This trick was shown on The Real Hustle once. To be honest I watched it a couple of times and still didn't understand how the trick was done so I'd be screwed working on a till.

I had someone try it on me once. He threatened me when I told him that I knew what he was trying to do.

 

[TheScarletgirl]

This trick was shown on The Real Hustle once. To be honest I watched it a couple of times and still didn't understand how the trick was done so I'd be screwed working on a till.

I have done a few cash handling jobs before . It is tricky to tally up when you have loads of transactions in one day.

 

[Ensay]

This trick was shown on The Real Hustle once. To be honest I watched it a couple of times and still didn't understand how the trick was done so I'd be screwed working on a till.

I think it's basically that the crook passes you a £20 note for, say, a £4.69 purchase - so the till says you need to give £15.31 change. You start to count that out, then the crook says "oh actually sorry I need to keep that £20 note, can I use this £10 instead?"

So you have to give the person their £20 note back and of course you then need to give the person £5.31 but they keep talking or change their mind again until you don't know how much change they're actually due. So then they confidently say how much you need to give them and you do because you can't work it out.

They never get much out of it, because if they said "you owe me £35" you obviously wouldn't believe them, so it's a pointless thing that only gives the crook a measly few quid.

 

[Sogdhitalley]

Fantastic thread

 

[Ninetiesbitxh]

I sometimes used to help out in a firm of solicitors, who were family friends, just doing clerical work and gofering.
One day I had to walk to another solicitor's office to collect a cheque for a deposit for a house purchase, and bring it back to our office.
It was a really windy day and I was crossing a bridge, returning with the cheque.
Like a complete eejit, I decided to stop on this windy bridge and open the envelope to double check all the paperwork.
The wind nearly blew the cheque away, and into the river, as I was taking it out of the envelope but I managed to grab it and I got such a fright, I'll never forget it!
How could I have faced going back to the office, after losing a cheque for thirty grand during a five minute walk!
And having to tell the clients that the deposit for their house had blown into a river

This honestly made me laugh so much

 

[Bubblesandflowers]

My worst mistake was only found out because I had a mystery shopper without realising and it was all on tape.
I was selling life insurance and because the medical questions can be long, boring and embarrasing I was given a tip by a colleague to just turn the screen around and get them to fill it in. However I decided to leave my office that day because the guy was 10/10 HOT and I wanted to gossip with my colleagues. This meant I left my screen unlocked where someone could potentially access far too much personal data. I also badly flirted with him and I didn't even realise he had a recorder on my desk.

2 weeks later I suddenly had an email informing me I passed the mystery shop but a security breach was put against my record. I couldn't even explain why I left my computer unsupervised. I know it was incredibly stupid to do and regretted it. Thankfully they accepted it was a lapse in judgement and a mistake. 9 years on I am still embarrassed and can't believe I was so dumb. All because I wanted to tell some colleagues I had a good looking man in my office.

I have also been accused of some things which I was incredibly cross about. One customer accused me of being abrupt despite her shouting in my face because I needed to ask more questions to check the application fitted within criteria. And another accused me of "misadvising" because an underwriter declined her application because the commute didn't add up. My manager at the time didn't want to understand my explanation for things despite knowing what was going on in real time. So before the second customer was declined, I spoke to her about I'm going to seek advice etc etc. Because I had issues at home and two happen within a short amount of time, she didn't consider my version of events. Simply put it down to I should have done better. I left that job shortly afterwards.

 

[Guccigal]

Sorry to go off topic, but this was the only work related thread I could find!

Just a quick question, I’m going to Turkey mid June for some surgery. The whole trip is one week then I’d need another few days off work (or maybe not as we’re wfh still anyways) I’m obviously not keen on saying I’m off for plastic surgery as there’s a lot of big mouths and word would spread, but I’m not sure what to say!!

I’d happily just use my annual leave to avoid questions but I have holiday days to take by the end of may, so if I put in a June request for two weeks later it’d probably get rejected.

Does anyone have any experience with this or how to go about it please? Thanks so much x

 

[Lulu Goss]

Sorry to go off topic, but this was the only work related thread I could find!

Just a quick question, I’m going to Turkey mid June for some surgery. The whole trip is one week then I’d need another few days off work (or maybe not as we’re wfh still anyways) I’m obviously not keen on saying I’m off for plastic surgery as there’s a lot of big mouths and word would spread, but I’m not sure what to say!!

I’d happily just use my annual leave to avoid questions but I have holiday days to take by the end of may, so if I put in a June request for two weeks later it’d probably get rejected.

Does anyone have any experience with this or how to go about it please? Thanks so much x

I took two weeks off when I had my boobs done. I went to HR first to ask how it would work without telling them it was me, e.g “if someone has surgery for cosmetic reasons are they still able to be signed off in the normal way?”. The answer to that was yes, so I then told my manager I was having cosmetic surgery and would be signed off for two weeks afterwards. He kept it confidential and I told everyone else (apart from a couple of colleagues I’m really close to) I was having all my wisdom teeth removed I said it’d probably be a week off, then when I came back I just said how I’d had to have all four out and that I was very sore/swollen and couldn’t eat after. My work mate actually did have two weeks off after having wisdom teeth out so no one questioned it haha!

If you’re able to get signed off by your surgeon, I would do that. No one else needs to know why apart from your manager - you could even tell other people it’s annual leave if you didn’t want to have to make up a story like I had to!

 

[Guccigal]

I took two weeks off when I had my boobs done. I went to HR first to ask how it would work without telling them it was me, e.g “if someone has surgery for cosmetic reasons are they still able to be signed off in the normal way?”. The answer to that was yes, so I then told my manager I was having cosmetic surgery and would be signed off for two weeks afterwards. He kept it confidential and I told everyone else (apart from a couple of colleagues I’m really close to) I was having all my wisdom teeth removed I said it’d probably be a week off, then when I came back I just said how I’d had to have all four out and that I was very sore/swollen and couldn’t eat after. My work mate actually did have two weeks off after having wisdom teeth out so no one questioned it haha!

If you’re able to get signed off by your surgeon, I would do that. No one else needs to know why apart from your manager - you could even tell other people it’s annual leave if you didn’t want to have to make up a story like I had to!

Okay thanks so much! Is there a way to go about it where I wouldn’t have to say it was cosmetic surgery? I just work at a small company with literally one hr person, so people talk and I just don’t want anyone at work to know

 

[HoGi]

Okay thanks so much! Is there a way to go about it where I wouldn’t have to say it was cosmetic surgery? I just work at a small company with literally one hr person, so people talk and I just don’t want anyone at work to know

HR should know better than to share personal information without consent.

Just tell them you don't want anyone to know the reason you are off. That is a totally reasonable request and if you don't tell anyone and word gets out you know they have talked and you could take it further for misconduct.

HR will know not to share personal information

ETA I am a line manager and if one if my staff calls in sick I'm not even allowed to tell their colleagues what is wrong even if it is just a headache

 

[Lulu Goss]

HR should know better than to share personal information without consent.

Just tell them you don't want anyone to know the reason you are off. That is a totally reasonable request and if you don't tell anyone and word gets out you know they have talked and you could take it further for misconduct.

HR will know not to share personal information

ETA I am a line manager and if one if my staff calls in sick I'm not even allowed to tell their colleagues what is wrong even if it is just a headache

Exactly what I was going to say. Line managers and HR especially shouldn’t share confidential information.

You could say you’re going to be having surgery but don’t want want to give details. My fit note did have my procedure on it, just so you’re aware, but you don’t have to disclose it before then if you don’t want to.

 

[Ninetiesbitxh]

I took two weeks off when I had my boobs done. I went to HR first to ask how it would work without telling them it was me, e.g “if someone has surgery for cosmetic reasons are they still able to be signed off in the normal way?”. The answer to that was yes, so I then told my manager I was having cosmetic surgery and would be signed off for two weeks afterwards. He kept it confidential and I told everyone else (apart from a couple of colleagues I’m really close to) I was having all my wisdom teeth removed I said it’d probably be a week off, then when I came back I just said how I’d had to have all four out and that I was very sore/swollen and couldn’t eat after. My work mate actually did have two weeks off after having wisdom teeth out so no one questioned it haha!

If you’re able to get signed off by your surgeon, I would do that. No one else needs to know why apart from your manager - you could even tell other people it’s annual leave if you didn’t want to have to make up a story like I had to!

It would depend on your companies policy surrounding sick leave for “cosmetic” surgery, some might say you would need to take paid/unpaid leave for it. As others have said though, HR and your line manager should maintain confidentiality throughout. The more notice you can give them, the better.

 

[emm]

It would depend on your companies policy surrounding sick leave for “cosmetic” surgery, some might say you would need to take paid/unpaid leave for it. As others have said though, HR and your line manager should maintain confidentiality throughout. The more notice you can give them, the better.

I have no real ideal but honestly if I were you I would probably pretend it wasn;t a cosmetic surgery and was some dental work or something, so many people go aborad for that now